You Set Me Free
by Silver Evenstar
Summary: TBC of And If By Chance! Tohru hasn't seen the Sohma family for years, but will college teach her she needs more than what she's got? Or will she miss out on the chance of a lifetime...
1. Prologue

You Set Me Free

Chapter Rating: PG-13

A/N: Thank you so much for those of you who have encouraged me to continue this story. I didn't even realize how popular it has become, at least in my eyes. Because of it, it's made me want to continue and I've finally got the right inspiration for it. Thank you!

Disclaimer: I STILL don't own Fruits Basket, but I wish I did. ; However I do own Kei and Li.

**Prologue - Tohru**

It's been… four years. Yes that's it. I haven't seen any of the Sohma family for that long. At times, it feels like it's been so much longer. Mostly at night too, when I sit outside in front of the dorm rooms and stare at stars like Kyou-kun and I used to do. Or when I walk through a store and examine the different kinds of flowers I never used to know about until Sohma-kun taught me. Every now and then I even go into a bookstore and try to find anything that Shigure-san might have written. But even as lonely as it gets, I suppose I'm… happy.

After my parents appeared and took me 'home', I tried my best not to be depressed. Most mornings I'd wake up and head down the stairs to get ready for breakfast and I'd find my mother already hard at work with it. She insisted I didn't need to help her, and I don't think she has ever realized how important something so simple made me happy. But I guess I didn't need to think so strongly about the past. I had a future to look forward too, and I could never forget my _entire_ family.

And that's pretty much where I am now. I finished up whatever schooling I missed while living with the Sohma family and I've reached college. The slavery ban law has already gone into affect and many families are having trouble with getting everything together and having a life of their own. A few families just continue to work and be paid under their original 'masters'. There wasn't much fight over it either, like my parents had thought.

I worked hard to get into college, all the way living in Tokyo. It's a beautiful city too, so many lights and things to do. I've made quite a few friends but none as close as Kei and Li. Kei and Li are twins, Kei being five minutes older than his sister Li. Those two… they love fighting about who's older… almost the same kind of bickering that Kyou-kun and Sohma-kun did at the house. All three of us live in one dorm, since neither family can afford to pay all by itself. I myself personally enjoy every minute of college life.

Along with college I suppose I've grown a bit with it. Li insists I'm not so naïve anymore, however I'm still just as dense… I think. But I guess lots of things can change over time. Though… not everything, as much as I don't like to think about the past, he's still here. I've seen him in my mind but even now that picture of him is fading. I can't forget him, but certain expressions or trying to remember his touch, it's just fading. And I hate it. I think that's the only thing I can ever truly hate. That I can't remember him like I want too, fresh and crisp like I just saw him yesterday.

Selfish I suppose, but everyone needs something in life. That's what my mother says. I think she knows I miss them, she even insisted that I could go see them, but I knew… Akito wouldn't have aloud it. I could always do wrong and just –

" Tohru! You're not paying attention… again!" Blinking slightly, I turn and look at Kei, blushing a little as I see him and Li staring at me slightly annoyed. Li held up the math book and put in my face, pointing to a problem. " You know, we need to pass if we ever want to pass and get through college too you know!" Giggling a little, I nod and pull the book down to the table and stare at the equation.

" Damned if I know what it is…" Kei grumbled under his breath and ran his fingers through his short brown hair, blue eyes glued to the book and staring at it like it was going to cut off his fingers. Shrugging a little, I close the book and put it into my bag. " Maybe we should take a break. We've been working for nearly three hours and we've still got plenty of time before finals…"

" Two weeks to the day… tomorrow if I'm correct. Your right Tohru let's get out of here!" Li grabbed my arm and stuck her tongue out at her brother who huffed and copied me, shoving the book into his own bag and slinging it up over his shoulder. " Well I'll leave you girls to it, I've got to get some time in with the guys before they start calling me a girl." Li rolled her eyes and let out a whistle at him, winking before tugging on my arm to follow her.

Somewhere down the line, we ended up at the little shop not too far down into the city that we usually hang out at. Coffee, tea, and cake… you name the sweet and they've probably got it. For once though, I didn't order anything and watched Li nibble on the strawberry cheesecake in front of her. I was spacing again, which I happen to be doing a lot lately, and that's when it caught my eye. Someone with orange _something_ standing to my far left. My eyes widen slightly just staring at Li, too afraid to look over. But somehow my eyes were drawn to the window.

Kei walked in, his head covered with his favorite orange cap on his head. I sighed just enough for Li to notice and she tilted her head and stared at him softly as she waved her brother over. " What's wrong? You look like you just lost you best friend…" I blinked a few times before shaking my head and giving her a soft shake of my head. " Just thought I saw something." I scooted over and let Kei slide in next to me, him wrapping an arm around my shoulders and giving me a goofy joking look before reaching across with his free hand and swiped a part of Li's cake right of her fork.

As the two argued playfully, I couldn't help but feel eyes on me. I shook it off and joined into the fight by stealing a piece of Li's cake as well, gaining a huge hug from Kei as we all laughed. I love my life… but somehow, it's still very lonely.

It was bland and kind of short, but I just wanted to set a basis for what's changed about Tohru and her life. The next chapter should be up soon and I hope you'll get into it. -- Samu


	2. Shock

**You Set Me Free**

Chapter rating: PG-13

A/N: Since this is an AU type story, and I know nothing about colleges in Japan, I'm just going to make one up but if it does happen to be the name of one or such, don't mind it much. ;

**So Far Away – Kyou**

The world pretty much went bleak for me. Once Tohru left the house and my life, everything just looked that way. And yet, because of her I saw light. I didn't give up, and I guess in a way I didn't go back to being a complete jackass. Close, but not completely. You see I stood up for myself for once. Akito had planned on locking me away for the rest of my life just like the rest of the 'cat' clan before me. However I wouldn't let me. I was no longer wanting to be a part of this… this 'family'. And somehow the rat got dragged into it.

It was only a few weeks after Tohru left; I was supposed to willingly give myself in to be locked up. Well that night I hatched my own plan, which was probably so well thought of that it'd screw up. I planned on sitting on the roof until Akito came to fetch me before removing my bracelet and well, letting him have it full well knowing my other side wouldn't be able to stand him. That _rat_ got in my way. It seemed he had a plan of his own. Even though he was thoroughly disgusted with me and my feelings towards Tohru, ones that he harbored himself, he figured it'd be easy if we both got away instead of just one.

I think that's how I ended up here. Yuki's good credit got him anywhere he wanted to go, and for some reason Akito didn't follow. Obviously though Yuki realized that he might go after Tohru. Everyone in the family loved her, and who better to go to? That's why we won't, no matter how hard it gets at night to sit and do nothing **but **think about her. Painful but I guess necessary. Finishing off high school at various different places since we moved a lot, we couldn't really do so in college so we picked the big city. It would hopefully be easier to hide in there than anywhere else.

How I'm getting along with the rat lately is almost frightening. We share an apartment down on the south side, purposely far from the college. Each of us have our own jobs, I work at a cafe not too far west of here, and he works… well I don't know, and I don't really care as long as he pays his own rent. We don't have much contact either. It's one of those 'enemy with benefits' deals. Though sometimes… like today, we go out together. The loneliness gets to us at times, is my excuse, even though neither of us will bring it up.

Today is that _special_ day. The same day Tohru left so long ago, and we both just seem to need company. As usual though, we don't open our mouths… hell we don't even really go anywhere. Most of the time we just walk around the city, trying to burn our bodies instead of our almost weak minds. Being dull minded can be kind of painful too at times. Running my fingers through my hair, I purposely took the lead. I wanted my check for the week so I wouldn't have to worry about it over the weekend.

Quiet as always, that rat just followed me as I entered the café. Maria behind the counter smiled at me softly, giving a small nod. She was another one who knew of our curse, however Hatori was the one who broke her in. On a little visit out here to make sure both of us were doing well, he bumped into Maria. Instead of wiping her memory, the two seem to be 'seeing' each other in a sense.

Yuki suddenly tugged at my sleeve, and I just about whirled around to hit him, but as I did, he caught my hand and pointed with his free one. At the far end of the café there was a lone pair of girls. My jaw nearly dropped when my eyes finally pointed out Tohru to me. At first I thought I was seeing things, but the rat wouldn't have gotten so worked up over it either. I simply gapped and stared at her.

Either luckily or cursed, Yuki suddenly pulled me back from her view as she turned towards us. A boy walked past us with an orange hat on, sitting himself next to her and planting his arm around her. That caused a low growl to emerge from my throat, and I was ready to storm over there, declare something… who knows what, but I wasn't even thinking about it at the time.

Yuki let out a groan as he spotted the boy, just as Maria handed me my check. Grumbling under my breath, I stormed my way out instead of towards, realizing it took that damn rat a moment to even realize I left. Crossing my arms, I tried to tell myself that I shouldn't be surprised. I mean, it had been so long and she needed a normal life. We weren't even on the roster for normal.

I had never seen her around the place before, then again, I preferred to work the night shifts, when I wasn't in class. Yuki didn't seem to mind that I headed straight for our apartment. I knew what he was thinking though, and that in itself nearly made me attack him.

" Don't even say it rat boy. We can't just up and change colleges like we did high schools. We haven't seen her before, and I very much doubt she's seen us either." He sighed and crossed his arms, brooding like always, but it took me a moment to realize that I too had my arms crossed. _Feh._

" We can't risk it to her." Of course he thought of her first. I always seemed to do that last, even when she left. I wanted her with me, not somewhere I could never see her again. Sighing a little myself, I just shook my head at him. " No, we stay here. We can't run forever." For some reason, he didn't argue with me. Maybe he knew deep inside I was right. We ran from our family, Akito… the last thing I wanted to do was run from her.

Sunday night shifts, so little work, and so much time to spend doing nothing, this was how much of my life was spent lately. Scraping up enough money for rent and food, then school. I didn't have a life, how could I? No way could I go clubbing without ending up getting bumped into or maybe even hit on. As much as I loved the nightlife, it sure could be boring.

I was staring at the wall clock behind the counter, my back to the door like usual. I heard a 'ding', and as everyone knew you sat yourself. However I couldn't hear any footsteps. Just eyes, almost digging into my back, almost painful… I sighed and turned around to face and probably sit the customer. However their face was leaning over the counter so the first thing I encountered where eyes. Deep, blue and almost painful eyes… _what the!?_

I wanted to back away as fast as I could however, I couldn't move. Not in the least bit. Not even when the small hand raised and landed softly on my cheek. I groaned inwardly, and took that moment to finally back away. _How can she stare at me like that?_ Blinking a few times, it seemed to catch her attention. Backing away from the counter a bit, Tohru dropped her hand next to her, but continued to stare at me.

" Kyou-kun…" I actually flinched. I gave her a small nod, looking away from her. All this time, I had imagined what it'd be like to see her again, to speak with her. I had everything planned out, but now I couldn't think of a thing to say to her. She seemed rather shocked too, her mouth opening and closing like she had no idea what to say either.

As I finally opened her mouth, she smiled at me. One of those smiles that melted me inside to the point where I couldn't say no… she pointed towards a table and gave another small, shocked nod and hopped over the counter and followed her to the table. Sitting down across from her, I remembered seeing her and her friends earlier that day.

" How's life?" _Stupid stupid stupid!_ I groaned inwardly and watched her smile even more. " Oh I'm wonderful Kyou-kun. I finally got into school with Li and her twin brother Kei…" I simply nodded to her and she took a moment before tilting her head a little to look at me. " What about you? Did the Sohma family move into the city?"

I almost laughed at her. Smiling a little I shook my head. " No, the rat and I… somehow we're getting along enough to get out of that family and live… lives." I shrugged a little at her, before blinking. There was that surprised look, before she let out a small squeal. _Yup, some things never change._ " You and Sohma-kun are getting along!?"

" Well… I call it 'enemy with benefits'…" She looked down a little at the table in disappointment and this time I groaned aloud. " Yes we're getting along." _Wimp, it's been years and yet you hate making her cry._ She smiled at me, looking like she was tempted to suddenly jump across the table to hug me, however she stopped after a moment, before shrugging innocently.

" You work night shifts here?" I grinned a little and shrugged. " It pays rent." Giggling a little, she leaned back before her eyes lit up. " How about you and Sohma-kun come over to my apartment? You could meet Li and Kei, and then we could really catch up!" Before I could even open my mouth, she pulled out a pen and a small piece of paper, scribbling down her address on it before handing it to me. " I have to get back to the school! I'll see you later!"

She stood and leaned over, kissing my cheek. Both of us seemed to suddenly blush and I waved a little as she hurried out the door. _Oh boy… the rat is going to skin me alive._ Grinning a little, I laughed, speaking aloud to myself. " Hell it's worth it!"

A little weird I guess, but I wanted them to meet up, so there we go! Don't know when the next chapter will be up, but hopefully soon! Please R&R! - Samu


End file.
